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This study explores how an institutional innovation in the 20th Century – Coasean bargaining - could contribute to build a low carbon China in the 21st Century. China has surpassed all nations and become the world's largest emitter of CO 2 since 2007. A time-series analysis has revealed that crude oil and coal consumption, inter alia, are the primary factors contributing to the variations in CO 2 emissions in China. To honour China's commitments in the Paris Agreement 2015, this paper, with reference to the empirical results, estimates the impacts on various sources of energy consumption before 2030. Developed upon the Coasean bargaining framework (1960), the cap-and-trade (CAT) markets have contributed to reduce the pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions in the US and EU. This paper will illustrate how the CAT market can be complementary to administrative measures for CO 2 reduction in China. It will also discuss the institutional settings and constraints of the 7 pilot CAT markets in China, and also the national one to be rolled out in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the household survey of “household energy consumption and living conditions in Beijing”, in this paper, we estimate the determinants of household carbon emissions and its relation to a community's building, neighborhood and location attributes. We find that a community with energy-saving building attributes and with greater amenities in neighborhood significantly reduces the level of residential household carbon emissions. Meanwhile, a community that is far from public facilities tends to increase the probability of car purchase and results in higher transportation carbon emissions. Given the implications these findings have on eco-communities and urban sustainability, we further discuss the importance of the role of a community when conducting ecological studies and its role for designing strategies for urban ecological infrastructure (UEI) planning toward eco-friendly economy and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on public perception of sustainable homes in a developing economy, namely Saudi Arabia, known for its high energy consumption and CO 2 emission rates. The research explores (i) public perception and knowledge of sustainable and/or low energy homes, (ii) domestic stock typology (including architectural style), (iii) energy consumption patterns, (iv) levels of satisfaction with energy (i.e. HVAC) systems, (v) cultural barriers that prevent the delivery of low energy homes, and (vi) people's acceptance of energy retrofitting and/or sustainable homes. For this purpose, a comprehensive survey ( n = 622) was conducted across the country. The findings reveal limited public awareness as well as important socio-cultural barriers to the delivery of sustainable homes, and large scale energy retrofitting of the existing domestic stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Chinese government has promulgated a wide variety of low-carbon initiatives to control the rapid growth of energy consumption and carbon emissions in the cities. Past records, however, show that the central government's policies are often poorly implemented or distorted by local officials. Using a case study from the city of Changchun, this paper examines how and why the issue of poor implementation persists despite the establishment of the Energy Conservation Target Responsibility System (ECTRS). As a key institutional mechanism providing local officials with political incentives to implement low-carbon policies, the ECTRS has been constrained by a number of problems, including a poorly designed scoring system, weak targets, the use of energy intensity instead of absolute energy consumption as a policy objective, and the lack of reliable local energy statistics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sustainability policies that have quantitative emission or carbon footprint measurements are important in view of climate change and current rapid urbanization in developing countries like Malaysia. Although sustainability policies are mentioned in national development plan as early as in the 1990s, many of these policies are piecemeal and expressed qualitatively. In achieving environmental sustainability, planning of city or a region can be more functional and implementable by using low carbon city concept. Planning a low carbon city uses sustainable development principles; this demonstrates a high level of energy efficiency using low carbon energy sources and production technologies. It also adopts patterns of consumption and behavior that are consistent with low levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the urban areas. The planning of the fast developing region of Iskandar Malaysia, which is located in southern part of Peninsular Malaysia, provides a good opportunity for urban managers to incorporate the ideas of low carbon cities in this proposed high growth urban conurbation. This paper aims to explore implementation of the concept and vision of low carbon scenarios and examine the strategies toward the reduction of CO2 emission. This study also prepares a quantitative scenario study on the establishment of low carbon urban development in Iskandar Malaysia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: It is important to understand the settlement morphology and its transition process in the rapid urbanization cities of developing countries. It is equally important to learn about the relationships between transport energy consumption and the transition of settlement morphology and its underlying processes. Finally, if the existing transportation technologies are already adequately meeting the environmental challenges of that sector then urban policies can serve as a guide to the transition of settlement morphology, especially for developing countries. Through the application of an integrated land use and transportation modeling system, TRANUS, the paper demonstrates that this transition will bring great changes to the urban spatial distribution of population, jobs and land use, and to residents'' travel patterns, thus resulting in different transportation energy consumption and CO2 emission levels, but that these changes can be managed through appropriate public policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Yangtze River Delta (YRD), one of China’s most developed, dynamic, densely populated and concentrated industrial area, is growing into an influential world-class metropolitan area and playing an important role in China’s economic and social development. The formation and the urbanization process of YRD are inseparable from climate change. This paper explores such interrelationship from two perspectives. On one hand, using historic data, we summarized the urbanization process in the YRD, and concluded that climate change has been shaping the Delta and its socioeconomic development. On the other hand, the urbanization process of the Delta has shaped its geography and built environment, which, however, are not adaptable to future climate change. Potential disruptive effects include large flooded land area, flood disasters, production and energy inefficiency, and other environmental threats. It is imperative to adopt policies and programs to mitigate and adapt to climate change in the fast urbanization process. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]